Hi
I'm new to Xamarin Forms and Native and trying to wrap my head around our current work.
A vendor wrote Xamarin Native Android and iOS apps for my company which have been handed over to my team so we have the Xamarin source code. They are live in the app stores and handle their own navigation, push notifications, authentications, etc. These apps provide specific data and functionality.
Internally we have been directed to build all future mobile apps in Xamarin Forms. We have started a new Xamarin Forms solution for different data and functionality. We have also been directed that our organization should only release ONE app in the app store and that all content and functionality should be served from it. Somehow we need to bring the native projects into this Forms project to accomplish this. Ideally we would rewrite the native apps into forms but currently we don't have approval for this because of the work effect and no ROI. Management also a presumption that we can just "stuff" the native apps into the forms app.
I understand that Forms can embed native views and vice versa but I don't know that it would work for what we are being asked to do. We need to be able to open the Forms app, touch a button and then go to/pass control to/redirect to the native app (as if we were literally launching a different app) which will handle it's own navigation, authentication, pushes, storage, etc. BUT it can't be a separate app that has to be installed. I hope I'm making sense... Further, we need the native apps to be able to get back to the forms app in case the user wants to use functionality there.
Is this possible? Even if it were, is it the right thing to do or would it be nightmare to implement and maintain down the road? I'm ready to push back on this but I don't understand it well enough and need rational....
Thanks in advance!